5 rounds – May 3, 10, 17, 24, 31 – (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 5 rounds) (Players may take up to 1 half-point and any number of zero-point byes. Half-point byes for round 5 must be requested before Round 2.)

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp. There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /110 minutes [Each player has 1 hour 50 minutes to complete their moves, the game will be be approx. 3 hours and 40 minutes maximum]. We will also be using FIDE Rule Appendix G.4 for situations with players having under 2 minutes remaining.

$ 15 entry fee and CFC membership required.

All players must be CFC members (can be obtained during registration on-site)

[$ 20 for a one-tournament adult membership or $ 49 for 12 months- new adult members pay only $ 36 for a twelve-month CFC membership, or $ 16 for a one-tournament membership]

Junior (under 20) members pay $ 10 for a one-tournament membership, $ 34 for a twelve-month CFC membership, new junior members pay only $ 24 for a twelve month CFC membership, or $ 8 for a one-tournament membership]

Registration for tournament -Tuesday, May 3 – approximately 6:35 pm to 6:50 pm

Registration will be cut off at 6:50 pm. (If you think you may be late, please send an email to chessmanitoba ‘at’ gmail.com) before 5 pm (you can try later, but the wireless access at the U may be problematic) . Players can join in Round 2, they will receive a half-point bye for Round 1. Additional bye information will be added.

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

Easiest way to get there is to take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the old Bookstore location. Our goal is to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

As I mentioned in a previous post - I shared a flat with four people I did not know previously. Well, as it turned out, I had met one of them before! My flatmates were Padmini Rout, and Nisha Mohota of India, and father/daughter from Iceland, Magnus Kristinsson and Veronika Magnusdottir. We all got along very well, and I am happy to have 4 new friends.

Magnus and Veronika squinting into the sun, waiting for the bus at Casemates.

Nisha Mohota and Padmini Rout en route to the playing site. To Nisha's right is Yasser Saber of Morocco, who defeated GM Bellon Lopez in Round 9. Waiting for and taking the bus was a great way to meet fellow players.

I had met Nisha at the 2005 Canadian Open during the post mortem with Jonathan Zaczek. http://www.365chess.com/view_game.php?g=3190808. She became an IM in 2011. Padmini is also an IM, and notched a GM norm at the 2015 Gibraltar Masters.

Another new friend is John Zachariassen. We were paired near each other for most rounds in the Masters. He was staying at the Cannon Inn, near my flat, so we stopped for dinner one night at the Star Bar, Gibraltar's oldest bar.

Jim Green and Ethan Eckert were successful in were successful for the at-large bids. Update, April 5: Jim has had to withdraw due to medical issues. Arvin Dawa will replace Jim.

The play-in round will consist of the following match pairings:

Derek Ma vs. Ethan Eckert
James Atem vs.Arvin Dawa

the first named will have choice of colour in Game 1.

2016 Manitoba Closed Championship Qualifying -

Manitoba Closed 2016 format : 8 player knockout

(Note: on February 23, 2014 the MCA
board approved the adding up to two spots to the the Manitoba
Championship at discretion
of the Board; if the Board add the two spots, qualifiers 7 and 8
(ordered by CFC rating, along with the new 2 additions
will play in a preliminary knockout round, producing two winners who
then
play with the top six qualifiers by CFC rating. On November 23, 2014,
the Board approved continuation of this procedure for 2015 forward)

Qualifiers -
Players must be Manitoba Permanent residents.

(Persons
who are not citizens or permanent residents, but who have been a
resident of Manitoba for a twelve-month period immediately preceding the
tournament, may be admitted to the Tournament provided they can clearly
demonstrate to the MCA Board of Directors that they have a settled
intention to continue to reside in Manitoba. The admittance to the Tournament of such exceptions shall be entirely at the discretion of the MCA Board of Directors.)

Qualifiers
must play 10 standard rated games (somewhere in the world) during
calendar 2015 in order to qualify. In order of preference - if the
qualifying player does not want to
participate or the qualifier is redundant, we continue down the
list until there are 8 willing participants.

The
above players will be contacted in early January 2016 to determine their willingness to
participate in the knockout. If any of the players decline, invitations
will be provided to next players on the list below. Then there will be
a short period when wild-card bids (as described above) will be
entertained.

MTPSS - Modified Tournament Performance Point Score
MTPPS is calculated as follows:
A Loss = 0 points
A Draw = the rating of the opponent
A Win = the greater of [your opponent's rating + 200] or [your rating]

The top ten performance scores for each player are counted
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current top MTPPS scores as of November 1. are as follows:
(Tournaments
scored included all Manitoba CFC Standard rated tournaments, Canadian Closed, Montreal Open, National Open, World Open, Millionare Open, etc.) If you believe
a result has been missed or is incorrect, please contact me.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

This was a fun event that started at 9 pm. The rules were that teams were to be composed of two players averaging no more than 2300 ELO, players were to alternate moves, and team members could not speak to each other (although, "oh, is it my move?" was heard often)

I (1915) teamed with one of my flatmates, Magnus Kristinsson (1776) to form Chess Tourists (1846)

Monday, April 4, 2016

I had Black against John Beadle (1560) of England, and ten years older than me. I was much more familiar with the opening, won a pawn on move 14 and had a decisive position before move 20.
So, I was on the scoreboard in the Masters. But the day still had more chess ahead !

Entering the last round of the Challengers B, I had 1.5-2.5, so win would give a credible even score.
I was Black against David Gostelow (2013) of England, a fellow same age as me. As I write this two months later, I don't remember much about this game.

Let's see 19. cd5 ed5 20. e6 would have been scary, and at no time was I a threat to win this game. My opponent was leaking time however, and offered a draw, which I had no regrets in accepting.
So I finished with 2 out of 5, finished 49 of 73, with a starting rank of 65, and gained 5 ELO.

Registration for tournament -Tuesday, April 5 – approximately 6:35 pm to 6:50 pm.

4 rounds – April 5, 12, 19, 26, – (This is not a knockout tournament, players will play all 4 rounds) (Players may take up to 1 half-point and any number of zero-point byes. Half-point byes for round 4 must be requested before Round 2.)

Please note that we intend to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp. There is one game per week.

All of the TNTs are Swiss (pairing) style tournaments with a time control of G /110 minutes [Each player has 1 hour 50 minutes to complete their moves, the game will be be approx. 3 hours and 40 minutes maximum]. We will also be using FIDE Rule Appendix G.4 for situations with players having under 2 minutes remaining.

$ 20 entry fee and CFC membership required.

All players must be CFC members (can be obtained during registration on-site)

[$ 20 for a one-tournament adult membership or $ 49 for 12 months- new adult members pay only $ 36 for a twelve-month CFC membership, or $ 16 for a one-tournament membership]

Junior (under 20) members pay $ 10 for a one-tournament membership, $ 34 for a twelve-month CFC membership, new junior members pay only $ 24 for a twelve month CFC membership, or $ 8 for a one-tournament membership]

Registration will be cut off at 6:50 pm. (If you think you may be late, please send an email to chessmanitoba ‘at’ gmail.com) before 5 pm (you can try later, but the wireless access at the U may be problematic). or phone 204-798-9464, Players can join in Round 2, they will receive a half-point bye for Round 1.

Location: University of Winnipeg – Rm 4CM42

Easiest way to get there is to take the elevator at the north end (Ellice) to the 5th Floor(if that Elevator is operating) Otherwise, there is an elevator just to the west of the old Bookstore location. Our goal is to start the first round at 7:00 p.m. sharp.